Archive for June, 2011

Here is a birthcard reading for card VII, The Chariot. To find out your own personal birthcard, click here.

The archetype of The Chariot represents finding direction in life, while reconciling opposing desires and perspectives. With the Chariot as your birthcard, you have a tendency to “find” yourself in situations of conflict, and to actively seek out challenges. You get great satisfaction in working through conflict, which you do mostly with the help of your outstanding abilities to reason and communicate. You like to have a sense of constant movement that leads to progression in your life. You enjoy travel, and see your life as a long journey with inner as well as outer voyages and stops. You need balance and harmony to function at your best, but you often find that your emotions and your mind fight against each other, the mental and emotional “horses” dragging each other from your chosen path. When the two are in balance within you, the outer events of your life sail along with an exhilarating feeling of speed and a true sense of direction. In addition to the qualities of the image of the Chariot, which expand and personify numerological properties, the number 7, your number, also has significance in itself. The 7 marks a fresh start, a new direction, and is considered a special number, the mystical number. It can’t be broken down into smaller parts or fully understood. People with 7 as their number often experience a sense of mystery and destiny that is paradoxically never satisfied in an answer or a goal, but only in finely tuned movement and change.

The image of The Chariot from the Tarot of St. Petersburg shows the charioteer in control of his path. This powerful driver can be seen as a representation of Dazhbog, the pre-Christian Slavic god who drives his diamond chariot of the sun across the sky every day. He is attended by the stars and planets, seen behind him, and the moon, which arches over his shoulders as a cloak. His chariot is drawn by fiery, headstrong horses who struggle to break away and follow their own paths. The chariot of this myth represents an inner struggle between two seemingly contradictory facets of the personality: the heart, and the mind, which pull in different directions. Each of the “horses” is intent on getting his own way, even if he tears the chariot to pieces. With The Chariot as your archetype, you see your life as a path to be traveled, maintaining control, and focusing the energy inherent in these potentially destructive steeds to move you forwards. As Dazhbog shows you in this image, you do not need to clutch the reins too tightly. Your control of the red horse of passion and the white horse of reason can come from a strong sense of purpose, and an instinctive ability to “harness” your own emotions and thoughts to help you reach your goal.

The message of The Chariot is that opposites can stand side by side, as in the dualism of Slavic mythology. This aspect of that ancient religion is unlike the dualism of most other Western religions, where opposites of good and evil fight with each other for supremacy. Instead, Slavic dualism, seen in Dazhbog’s journey from day to night, or from summer to winter, allows light and dark, reason and passion, heat and cold, to complement each other to form a harmonious whole. The identity of each of your “horses” is made more distinct by contrast with its opposing characteristic or position. Yes, the pull of opposites can create conflict in your life when two goals or desires threaten to upset the stability of your chariot. But without conflict, there is no progress, for it is conflict which induces you to change and grow, making you dissatisfied with your present way of living and forcing you to find new solutions. It is understandable to perceive The Chariot as too risky a possibility, to be unwilling to take up the reins because they don’t seem strong enough to tame the horses, to reconcile your conflicting desires. But only by controlling your fears and harnessing all your forces towards a chosen, clearly defined purpose can you victoriously meet your challenges. The Chariot as your birthcard gives you the ability to take up the reins of your own life, put yourself in the driver’s seat, and choose your life’s direction.

My friend Sophia tells me she figured out her birthcard number to find that it’s 8, the Strength card, so I thought I would choose that one to work with today. To find out your birthcard, click here.

The lion subdued by a graceful maiden is the traditional image for this card, representing the balance of opposites within an individual. The fiery nature of the lion is a metaphor for the raw power and impulses that well up inside of you, even when you are presenting an outward “maidenly” appearance. When channeled towards a purpose, this power is productive and invigorating, but out of control it can be dangerous and destructive. The maiden’s “force” is anything but forceful; her gentleness tames the unmodified power of the lion and he becomes a gentle friend, companion and servant. As an image of your archetype, this card shows the possibility of awakening your potential energy, which may be brought into full awareness only through the agencies of self-understanding and compassion, which can help you harness your lion to empower you to accomplish your goals.

Your inner passions are the source of your love and creativity, but they constantly need to be processed to be understood and expressed. You have good, strong instincts that can guide you, but you must let them flow through you at a pace and level that will not knock you off balance. Passion can be overwhelming if allowed to rule your life without being tempered with thoughts and beliefs. But if channeled into productive expression, it can give you the intuitive guidance to help you make your decisions, and to power your efforts once you start to act.

Sometimes, because of outside influences, you may feel like your impulses and instincts should be put down or ignored, that practical concerns and societal pressures should be listened to, even against your own instincts. Trust your inner self to know best; your passions will lead you in the direction that is right for you, and your own Strength will be the only force you need to guide you in the direction that will allow you to enjoy and employ your passions in a healthy and productive way.

The fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast fits both the image and the spirit of this card. When the kind and gentle Beauty first finds herself a “prisoner” in the Beast’s castle, she sees him only as a fearsome and brutal creature. The Beast also feels himself loathsome and monstrous in her presence, and they uneasily keep each other at bay. Over time, Beauty’s quiet and compassionate influence “tames” the Beast, bringing out his humanity. They eventually form a loving relationship that allows them to rule together in harmony over the Beast’s realm. The raw power of the Beast is channeled into life and love giving Strength through Beauty’s gentle touch.

This card’s archetype offers you an inner Strength that gently helps you find an outlet and purpose for the raw forcefulness of your passion for love and life. Like the infinity sign that appears above the maiden’s head like a halo, your life can flow in balance and harmony when your power is tamed by compassion and love, for yourself and for others.

Each person has his or her personal archetypal tarot card determined by birth date. This card reflects personality, life’s journey and outlook, like a sun sign in astrology. To find out your birthcard, click here. Here is an interpretation for birthcard III, The Empress.

With the Empress as your archetype, you have the ability to foster growth, creativity and abundance, for yourself and for those around you. The Empress is at home in her castle, her garden, and enjoys making her environment comfortable and nurturing for anyone in her realm. She is at home in the natural world, and feels connected to plants and animals, but even in urban situations, she has an ability to feel natural currents in people and in settings, even though those currents may not be apparent to others. She also has a sensibility to the dynamics of relationships and interchanges that go on around her. She can feel the undercurrents of conversations and situations, even when she cannot articulate them, or perhaps not even completely understand them. Sometimes this ability can manifest itself as an unwanted trait–making her too sensitive to people, and not being able to figure out why. But when she feels at home, in work or relationships, she becomes the queen of her environment, able to forge alliances, charm her subjects, share power with her equals, work towards goals that benefit herself and those around her, with power, control, and elegance.

Where the Empress walks, things grow, no doubt about it. This can offer opportunities for abundance and growth, but sometimes, the growth can become overgrown. The Empress loves the feeling of plants and projects putting out new tendrils that climb walls like ivy, but she also has a tendency not to like to prune the garden as it flourishes around her. Sometimes, the sheer amount of things she has grown turns to clutter, whether internal or external. Your internal Empress needs to remind you that clearing out old, dead wood and brush is necessary to allow for change and new growth. And when you clip off those dead branches, growth occurs like magic, whether in your garden or in your life. Your gift is a green thumb with people and plants, as long as you keep yourself in balance, continually clearing out old growth to allow for the new.

The number 3 itself is the number of synthesis. 1 point is unity or aloneness, 2 points is a pair, or a line between 2 points. But 3 points can form a triangle, something new and unexpected that transforms and unites the 2 floating points that preceded it. With 3 as your number, you have the potential to see the essence of disparate elements, find a possibility to combine them, and bring them together in a way that builds a cornerstone of something new and exciting that no one realized was possible.

The image of the Empress of “The Tarot of St. Petersburg” shows her sitting in colorful, elegant garb, in a rich and comfortably cushioned throne. But in spite of the beauty and comfort of her position as Empress, she also holds her sceptre in one hand and her shield in the other, ready to get up at a moment’s notice to deal with matters of state, or to go forth to wage war to protect her realm. The tale of Tsarina Maria Morevna gives us a story that is worthy of the Empress herself. The pagan queen, Maria Morevna, is a powerful ruler and warrior, who falls in love with a Christian Tsar. She is capable and confident, and shares almost everything with her love, but tells him not to go into the dungeon while she is not there. He does, and because he does not heed her warnings, he accidentally frees Maria’s dangerous prisoner. This prisoner, Koschey the Deathless, escapes, kidnaps her, and takes her to his home, far, far away. Tsar Ivan has let his Empress down, not trusting her wisdom and competence. He spends long and hard months atoning for his mistake. He eventually frees her from Koshchey the Deathless, but only after she communicates to him how to get a magic horse that is fast enough to carry them away from her captor. They become Tsar and Tsarina together, perfectly matched, ruling together, loving each other in wisdom and harmony.

Maria is confident and capable, and can rule her people and those of her husband with intelligence and a sense of purpose. Like the Empress, she works hard and is willing to fight to take care of her lands and her subjects, but she also has a tendency to want to control her realm all by herself. Although she trusts Ivan, she does not tell him the information he needs to keep him from making his almost fatal mistake. She expects trust, but feels that she knows best, and she thinks that should be enough for both her subjects and her loved ones. The Empress needs to remember that in all relationships, whether emotional or professional, sharing the truth and the “magic” that keep her world living and growing is essential to her own happiness, as well as the happiness of those she loves and works with.

You have the ability to create your own realm, nurturing your world so that it flourishes. Revel in your connection with people and nature; allow yourself to feel the delight in your connectedness to them in an atmosphere of love and harmony. Know that your sensitivity to others is a gift that may sometimes feel overwhelming, but makes you the caring and compassionate Empress you know you can be, the Empress who can wield her sceptre of power and justice in her own life.

Each person has his or her personal archetypal tarot card determined by birth date. This card reflects personality, life’s journey and outlook, like a sun sign in astrology. To find out your birthcard, click here. Here is an interpretation for birthcard VI, The Lovers.

The archetype of The Lovers represents passion, for a person, a cause, work, nature, anything that you can find yourself totally consumed by. People who have this card as their lifetime archetype tend to feel overwhelmed by their strong emotions and beliefs, and when unable to act upon their feelings, can become frustrated, angry or depressed. You sense the Divine all around you, but sometimes it feels like an ocean of spirit and feeling that you can’t articulate about or take action on. Your intuition and instinct makes you want to rush around and do everything you can for those you care about or in performing tasks you feel worth doing, but you have a hard time channeling your passion for love and life to make your everyday life manageable. You need a funnel to provide yourself with a small stream of this Divine gift, this ocean you would like to immerse yourself in, just dealing with one small miraculous aspect of life at a time.

The Greek myth of the Labours of Psyche provides an example that reflects the nature of this card. Psyche was assigned certain tasks before she could have any hope of winning back her lover, Eros. One of them was to fill up a cup with water from a stream, almost a river, that came bursting out of a high cliff. Psyche took the cup and went to look at this wild, crashing waterfall that rushed out into the air and fell to the bottom of a great abyss. She saw no way to reach it, and even if she could, she would not have the strength to hold the cup up to this mighty stream. She felt like giving up, she could see no alternative. A great eagle flew from the sky and asked her why she was crying. She explained her predicament, and the eagle offered to help. He took the cup in his strong beak and rose up in the sky, and coming in close to the great rushing water, filled it to the brim with the clear, cool elixir that Psyche needed to take back to her taskmistress, Aphrodite, the goddess of love. She thanked the eagle for his help and carried the cup back with great care, never spilling a drop, and was able to move on to the next stage of her journey.

In mythical terms, this tale describes the feeling of trying to hold on to all the passion of the universe that wells up in our hearts and motivates us to act on our feelings and desires, but which also can knock us over or drown us with its force. The eagle, denizen of the sky, the air, represents our mental facilities and analytical skill. He can fly a straight line through the clouds and across great distances that separate us from our goals. With the Lovers as your tarot archetype, you tend to follow your heart, but also have the eagle’s keen eyesight (insight) and ability to fly straight (to go to the essence of a situation) to fulfill your hopes and dreams.

Another key element of this card, related to this duality of heart and mind that you find yourself dealing with, is the struggle of your subconscious to break into your waking consciousness. This deep intuition about and concern for those around you, as well as for the community, the world, pushes you to find ways to bring your dreams into your waking life, even when others find you impractical or over emotional about your goals. You can never be satisfied emotionally with a relationship, a job, a way of life, unless your spiritual needs are met as well. You have the ability and intuition to bring the dualities of your life together in harmony, that is the nature of The Lovers, your archetype. Trust your feelings, they are strong and true, but let your head guide you to the best practical way to accomplish your goals and show those you love how you can truly care for them.

Each person has his or her own personal archetypal tarot card determined by birth date. This card reflects your personality and outlook, as well as your potential—qualities that will be helpful for you to develop throughout your life.

There are different systems for calculating your birth card. I recommend this easy method.

If the resulting number equals 22, such as in the first example, keep it. Your birth card is The Fool. If the resulting number is a double digit other than 22, add the digits together to reduce the number.

In the last two examples above,

34 reduces like this: 3 + 4 = 7. The birth card for 7 is The Chariot.

40 reduces like this: 4 + 0 = 4. The birth card for 4 is The Emperor.

If the resulting number is a double digit other than 22, reduce it again. For example, May 24, 1952 must be reduced twice like this:

The great Irish poet, William Butler Yeats, mined the tarot for ideas for some of his most powerful poetry. In his short poem, “Symbols,” he creates a haunting scene that depicts some of the tarot’s most recognizable images:

A storm beaten old watch-tower,
A blind hermit rings the hour.

All destroying sword-blade still
Carried by the wandering fool.

Gold-sewn silk on the sword-blade,
Beauty and fool together laid.

To those who are familiar with the tarot, the images in the poem are clearly drawn from it; however, Yeats is going beyond just a creative visualization of tarot motifs. He entitles the poem “Symbols,” not “Tarot Symbols.” As with his use of Irish and Greek mythology, or Christianity, in other poems, his vision goes beyond the specific images depicted. He explores the ability of the human imagination to see powerful symbolic meaning in physical objects.

We may draw on the richness of the tarot to help us envision this scene in our minds, but even if you’ve never heard of the tarot, you can still feel a frisson of fear and expectancy as the shadowy hermit sounds the tower’s great bell. The “all-destroying” nature of the fool’s sword clashes with, but is somehow softened by, the “gold-sewn silk,” and presents us with a confusing and yet satisfying combination of the precious beauty and the blundering foolishness of the quest.

The symbols come together to stir our imaginations, to lead us to recognize the archetypal nature of the journeys we all take in our daily lives, the mythic warnings and battles and treasures that can illuminate our daily struggles and triumphs. With this poem, Yeats helps us reconnect with the sometimes forgotten dreams and depths of which we are capable, allowing us to see our lives’ journeys for the heroic quests they are.

I’ve immersed myself in tarot, literature, and mythology for most of my life, but it’s only in the past few years that I’ve started bringing them together in my writing and teaching. I’ve found that there are others who see the appeal of this heady melange of image, word, and archetype, so I’m starting this blog to share some of the wonderful connections I’ve found between these three magic vessels of wisdom and enchantment. And if your life’s quest is also guided by the light of tarot, literature, and myth, I hope this blog will be a forum for you to share similar treasures found on your journey.